Laser processing attracts attention as a method of cutting a sheet material.
In the laser processing, there is such an advantage that a sheet material can precisely be cut into a desired shape by using a laser beam and programmatically controlling the motion of the laser beam, and a burr hardly occurs.
Further, a laser-processed component is taken out in various ways.
As the method for taking out component, for example, a taking-out method in which a sheet material is thermally cut into a product and a peripheral residual offcut by a laser cutting mechanism, the peripheral residual offcut drops by its own weight from the periphery of a placing portion and is recovered into a container, while the product cut off of a brittle sheet to be processed is sucked and held by a robot arm, moved to a discharge conveyor, and transported by the discharge conveyor is known (for example, see patent literature 1).
In addition, a separation and recovery apparatus that is disposed downstream from a laser cutting apparatus, and that separates and recovers a product component and a scrap component which are cut components is known (for example, see patent literature 2). Such a separation and recovery apparatus is provided with a transporting means, a transferring member transported by the transporting means, a sucking means installed in the transferring member to suck the product component, a pressing means installed in the transferring member to press down the scrap component, and a controlling means controlling suction/release of the sucking means.